Wiler

With just over 500 inhabitants, Wiler is the largest village in the Lötschental and the valley's most important tourist destination. In winter, it is the departure point for the cable car up to the Lauchernalp ski area.

Destroyed by fire in 1900, Wiler was rebuilt in keeping with the local architecture but, outside the village centre, the development of the tourist infrastructure has robbed it of some of its authenticity. As the Lötschental road bypasses it, the village does not provoke an instantaneous love affair like that of Blatten, further up the valley.

Wiler lies at an altitude of 1421m and, like the rest of the Lötschental, has only been accessible by road since the mid-twentieth century. Its development as a tourist destination was boosted by the construction in 1972 of the cable car up to the hamlet of Lauchernalp (1969m), the starting point of a ski area that culminates at 3111m, at the foot of the Hockenhorn (3293m).

The bottom station of the cable car is outside the village, halfway between Wiler and Kippel, a little further down the valley.

Wiler lies 5km from the southern exit of the Lötschberg tunnel, which was opened in 1913, making the village easily accessible from both the Rhône plain and the Bernese Oberland. Today, however, it's hard to believe that the village has only been accessible by road since 1953!